


Be Careful What You Wish For

by keithpoenewt



Category: Coraline (2009), Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coraline Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Keith (Voltron) Angst, Keith (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Minor Hunk/Shay (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), shiro is the cat - DEAL WITH IT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 08:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16155017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keithpoenewt/pseuds/keithpoenewt
Summary: While exploring his new home, a boy named Keith Kogane discovers a secret door that leads to an alternate world that closely mirrors his own, but is better in many ways. He rejoices in his discovery until Other Mother (the alternate version of his mother, Krolia) and the rest of the parallel family try to keep Keith there forever. With the help of some allies in his world, Keith must use all his resources and bravery to make it back to his real family and life.





	Be Careful What You Wish For

**Author's Note:**

  * For [YourTrueNemesis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourTrueNemesis/gifts).



> Nemesis, I'm gifting this to you because you've been one of the best supporters of my work since I started writing fic for Voltron. Your comments always make me smile and they brighten my day when I see them. I hope this one-shot shows how much I appreciate you as a reader and as a friend. <3
> 
> I've been working on this since November of 2017 and, wow, it's been a wild ride. I'm super proud of this and hope you all enjoy it!
> 
> Here is the [art that inspired this fic](http://caseydambro.tumblr.com/post/166834649645/be-careful-what-you-wish-for/). I love this art so much and I never would've thought to make Shiro the cat on my own lol.
> 
> BIG SHOUT OUT TO [MY LOVELY FRIEND](http://midnight-clover.tumblr.com/) WHO TOOK TIME OUT TO BETA READ THIS.
> 
> I meant to post this on Halloween, but I decided to post it today so everyone has all of October to enjoy this.
> 
> Happy reading~

_ From a dark abyss outside a window, a pair of metallic hands with spindly fingers made from needles summons a doll inside. The doll wears a blue dress with pink accents, and has long, wavy white hair, dark skin, and black buttons for eyes. The hands begin to reassemble it, tearing up the seams, and makes it into a new doll with fairly long jet black hair with bangs, a red jacket, black jeans, and red converse. Once the black button eyes are sewn on, the hands send it back into the dark void… _

 

* * *

 

Keith Kogane, a boy of 15 or so, sighs as he looks out the window of the car, watching the raindrops slide down. His parents, Krolia and Seth, each recently got job transfers from Michigan to Oregon, forcing the family to uproot everything and move across the country to their new home at the Altean Castle Apartments. Keith pulls out his phone, hoping for a text from one of his friends, but sighs when he sees nothing. Krolia turns and looks at him. “Hey, brighten up, Keith. We’re almost there,” she says with a smile, violet eyes twinkling. She moves a piece of her black bangs out of her face. He returns the smile, pleasing her enough for her to turn back around then he frowns again at the back of her head. Keith gets his jet black hair from his mom, obviously. Krolia usually keeps hers pulled back into a low, loose ponytail with an inch of magenta tips at the end.

He looks back out the window, leaning against his hand to stare at the dark trees they pass. Keith sits up when he sees the large white Victorian style house come into view. He sees that it’s divided into three sections, each for living in. The top has a large white staircase leading to the door. The door is painted a very bright orange. The middle section, the section where Keith and his parents are moving, has a porch out in the front, overlooking the yard. The third section has a staircase on the right of Keith’s door leading down towards a dark green door. The entire complex is surrounded by a large forest and shaded by a dull, overcast sky.

Seth parks the car and Keith and Krolia get out of the car. Keith walks over to go help his dad with boxes, but he brushes Keith off. “Keith, let the adults work, okay? Go play or something,” he orders. “Go find the well or whatever.”

Keith glares at his father and stomps off, leaving his parents and the movers to bring the boxes inside. He starts walking towards the forest, kicking up the mud along the way, not caring if his shoes get ruined. Keith stops when he spots a large stick on the ground, then reaches down to pick it up with his left hand, pretending to use it as a sword. He continues down the trail, pretending to slice and stab imaginary enemies, but stops when he reaches the top of a hill. A twig snaps behind Keith causing him to jump, clearly startled. Keith turns around and sees a black cat walking (hobbling?) out from the trees, hopping up onto a stump to sit and study Keith. The cat has a large scar across its nose and a white scruff of hair on its head - not to mention the front right leg is missing.

“Hey, do you know where the old well is?” Keith asks the cat.

An airhorn startles Keith, and a bicyclist appears through the trees wearing a blue lion painted helmet then starts circling him. Keith shields his eyes from the light. “HEY! WHAT GIVES?!”

The bicyclist stops circling Keith and hops off the bike, removing his helmet. Keith’s eyes widen at the boy, looking him up and down. The boy has short, soft-looking brown hair, olive skin, and bright blue eyes with an equally bright smile. He holds out his hand to Keith. “Hi, sorry about that! I’m Lance McClain, grandson of the owner of the Altean Castle.”

Keith blinks, snapping out of his trance, and shakes Lance’s hand. “I’m Keith Kogane. My family just moved in.”

“Mm, cool! I heard you were looking for the old well? Well, it’s right under your feet!” Lance exclaims, gesturing to the circular formation the mushrooms formed.

Keith hops out of the circle and notices the wood beneath the layer of mud. “Oh, jeez…I could’ve fallen in.”

Lance flashes him a smile. “You’re welcome! I’m surprised grandpa let a family with a kid move in…I’m not even allowed near the Altean Castle.”

“Why not?” Keith wonders.

“I’m not allowed to say, sorry,” Lance says sheepishly. He turns to the cat and scratches it behind the ears.

“Is that your cat?” Keith asks.

“No, but I take care of him,” Lance replies. “I named him Shiro. I don’t know what happened to his face or leg, but he’s a good cat. I-”

“ _ LANCE _ !” someone yells with a low, almost British sounding voice.

Lance winces. “Oops, I better go. That’s my grandpa calling me. Will you be out later?” He looks at Keith with hopeful eyes. “It’s been a while since I’ve had someone my age be my friend.”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to ask my parents,” Keith replies. He sees the happiness in Lance’s face start to fade away. “But I’ll try.” Keith offers Lance a small smile which seems to be enough to bring back the joy to Lance’s face.

“Great!” he exclaims, hopping back on his bike. “Oh, by the way, that stick is actually poison oak! Bye!” He rides away without another word.

Keith furrows his eyebrows and drops the stick to look at his left hand which, sure enough, is covered in red, itchy dots. He glares in Lance’s direction before storming back to his house. Stupid Lance…why didn’t he tell Keith about the oak sooner? He was a strange boy, to begin with. Why didn’t he have any other friends? He did talk a lot, which Keith found kind of annoying, but strangely, he liked hearing Lance talk.

A bright strike of lightning followed by a crash of thunder startles Keith enough to run back into the house. He slams the door shut and goes to take a step off the floor mat, but his mom stops him. “Whoa! Don’t track mud in the house!” she scolds.

Keith rolls his eyes but takes his shoes off before stepping onto the cool tiled floor of the kitchen. He hangs up his jacket and shakes his head, spraying water everywhere. Krolia gives him a glare before going back to her work. He smirks to himself at his mother’s annoyance towards him but doesn’t pester her any further. He knew bothering her while she worked on her gardening catalog would get him in a heap of trouble. Though, he didn’t understand why his parents worked for a gardening catalog when they despised dirt - why not get a job in a field that’s less dirty?

He walks over to the cupboards and looks for some tape to put on his hand so he doesn’t itch. Once he finds it, he wraps it up then puts the tape away. His presence must be bothering his mom because she sighs and glares at him again. “Keith, why don’t you go upstairs and unpack your things?” she suggests for him.

“If I do that, can I go outside later?” Keith asks.

“No, it’ll get too muddy out, and I don’t want you dragging mud all over the house,” Krolia replies.

Keith crosses his arms. “If you hate mud so much, why do you work for a fricken gardening catalog?!”

“Do you want to be grounded as well? If not, I suggest you stop bothering me,” Krolia warns, returning to her work.

Keith glares at her and storms off, very irritated. He wanders into the living room and plops down on the couch, bored out of his mind. Unpacking the boxes in his room is definitely not an option for Keith. He looks around the room, grimacing at the dull gray walls and the dusty furniture around him. The brown armoire at his right against the wall is covered in a layer of dust. He looks at the fireplace and notes the painting of a sullen-looking boy in yellow clothes. Keith frowns at the painting, wondering to himself why it’s up there before hopping to his feet in annoyance, fed up with not doing anything. He’d rather be outside hearing more stories from Lance versus just sitting in the living room dying of boredom. Sure Lance talked a lot, but was that really a problem? He was nice to listen to!

Keith walks over to the window and peeks out it, trying to see if Lance is outside, but a large flash of lightning in the sky scares him, causing him to land on the ground with a loud thud. He groans in more annoyance.

_ Stupid weather _ .

He debates on whether or not to go outside anyway, disobeying his mother’s orders, but quickly decides against it when he sees lightning strike again outside. Keith rolls his eyes and makes his way upstairs to his room and begins unpacking his boxes. He puts his clothes in the dresser and his shoes in the closet. The nicer clothes Keith has gets put on hangers and put in the closet as well. He throws the first two boxes into the hallway and tears open the third, sighing when he sees most of his knickknacks. He shuts the box and shoves it under his bed, not wanting to deal with them right now. They remind him too much of his old room back in their old house in their old neighborhood where all his old friends are.

Man, he does miss it there.

Keith finishes unpacking the last box and hears a tap on his window. He turns and sees Shiro the cat standing there with a doll in his mouth. Keith walks over and opens the window, allowing the cat to walk inside. He takes a seat on the windowsill and licks his paw while Keith examines the doll. It looks exactly like Keith, from the black hair to the red converse. The doll is a perfect match…aside from the button eyes. He sets the doll aside and opens the note:

 

_ Keith, _

_ I found this doll in my grandpa’s trunk when he told me to clean the attic out. It looks exactly like you, so I thought you’d like to have it. _

_ I hope to see you later! I had fun with you earlier today. _

_ -Lance _

 

Keith sets the note down and picks the doll up again to reexamine it. The doll gives him a weird vibe that he’s being watched, but he ignores it because the doll is a gift from Lance. Keith scratches Shiro the cat behind the ears then watches as he hops back out the window and off into the woods. Doll in hand, Keith makes his way downstairs and into his dad’s office. He knocks on the door, earning a sigh from his dad before he turns around.

Seth has a rectangularly shaped jawline whereas Krolia has more of a heart/triangle shaped jawline. Keith may have inherited his mother’s beautiful bone structure and facial expressions (the signature scowl), but he definitely inherited his father’s scruffy hair. Seth has a scar across his right eyebrow from a beer bottle his father struck him with during his youth. He seems more tired than usual because he still has stubble on his usually clean-shaven chin. Seth rubs his forehead. “Keith, what do you want?”

“I just wanted to know if I could go outside and explore some more?” Keith wonders, slowly making his way towards Seth.

“I thought I heard your mother say no to you going outside,” Seth replies. “You’ll get too muddy, and your mom will have an aneurysm if you track mud in the house.”

“What if I promise to be careful?” Keith asks with hopeful eyes.

Seth chuckles but shakes his head no. “Sorry kiddo. Boss lady said no. I’ll tell you what, why don’t you go around the house and take note of everything?” Seth hands Keith a pen and notepad. “Write down if you think we should keep it or try to sell it. Alright? I’m counting on you, Keith.”

Keith sighs in defeat but takes the pen and notepad from Seth. “Fine, but if an angry boy knocks on the door later, it’s your fault!” he exclaims, skipping out of the room.

He first takes note of the stuff he saw in the living room, mentioning the icky furniture, the gross armoire, and the depressing painting. Then he makes his way towards the closet under the stairs, but immediately stops when he sees a spider. Keith debates on using the doll but decides on finding a shoe instead. Lance gave him the doll as a present, and Keith doesn’t want to ruin it.

He looks around in confusion.  _ Speaking of the doll…where is it? _ Keith thinks to himself. He walks back into the living room and sees the doll hidden behind a mattress that’s leaning against the wall. Keith groans and huffs as he pushes the mattress aside, but stops when he notices the outline of a small door behind the wallpaper. He raises his eyebrows and kneels in front of the door, running his hand down the smooth wallpaper and stops when his fingers trace over a small keyhole. Keith tries to pry the door open with his fingers, but to no avail.

Keith stands up and runs into the kitchen where he finds his mom attempting to make dinner. “Mom!” he exclaims, startling her into dropping a pan on the ground.

“Keith!” Krolia exclaims, irritated. “Don’t sneak up on me like that! What do you want?”

“I found a secret door in the wall, and I can’t open it! Will you help me?” Keith asks, ignoring the glare he’s getting from her.

“Keith, I’m trying to make dinner here,” Krolia replies, turning back to the food.

“Please? The food won’t grow legs and walk anywhere…probably,” Keith says, peering at what she’s making.

Krolia sighs and sets her spoon down. “Fine. I think there’s a drawer of keys in here somewhere.” She opens a couple and nods when she finds it. “Right here. Come, grab a handful, and I’ll grab the rest.”

Keith smiles widely and nods, grabbing a handful of keys before leading his mom over to the door. They each take turns trying keys until Krolia picks out a black skeleton key with a button on the end. Keith and Krolia exchange a shrug before Krolia sticks it in the keyhole, turning it until they hear it click. Keith and Krolia exchange a smile before she opens the door to reveal a brick wall. Keith’s smile disappears, and he puts a hand on the wall. “What?! I don’t understand!” he exclaims.

“Well, we got the door open and there’s nothing here. Whatever was here was probably boarded up when they split the house into three separate parts,” Krolia says, collecting the rest of the keys. “May I get back to cooking now?”

Keith sighs, defeated, but nods. “Yeah…”

She ruffles his hair. “Sorry, Keith. Go wash up, and help me set the table for dinner.” Krolia stands up and makes her way back to the kitchen.

Keith sighs again then gets up to wash his hands and set the table. Seth walks in and sits down at the table, typing something on his phone. Keith sits down next to him and taps his finger idly on the table while Krolia sets the table.

“Keith, stop tapping your finger,” Seth orders without looking up from his phone.

Keith opens his mouth to retort, but his attention quickly switches over to the disgusting plate of meatloaf Krolia places on the table. “What on Earth is  _ that _ ?!” Keith wonders in disgust.

“Meatloaf,” Krolia replies.

“I don’t think meatloaf is supposed to be this color,” Keith says, picking up his fork to poke it, “or this hard.” He tries stabbing it, but it doesn’t go through.

Seth sets his phone down and narrows his eyes at Keith. “That is no way to thank your mother for the meal she prepared. If you don’t want it, then you can go to bed.”

Keith shoves his plate away and storms out of his seat. He makes his way up the stairs to his room and slams his door shut, hoping Seth gets the message that Keith isn’t happy with him. Keith then walks over to his seat by the windows and looks out at the stars in the sky. He smiles to himself, feeling happy for once since he got here. His gaze flickers down towards the ground when he sees movement. Lance runs around in a circle while Shiro chases after him, tail flicking back and forth. He stops after a few seconds and licks his missing leg. Lance notices and walks over to see if he’s okay, but once Lance walks over, Shiro pounces on him and sits on his chest in triumph. Keith smiles again when he sees Lance give him a hug and a scratch on the head. His smile fades when he sees Lance look longingly up at Keith’s window. Shiro gently headbutts Lance’s chin, but the smile doesn’t return.

Keith ponders going to bed or sneaking out to hang with Lance. He tiptoes over to his door and hears someone washing dishes in the sink and footsteps walking up the stairs. Keith waits for whoever is walking up the stairs to head to Keith’s room, but sighs in relief when he hears his parents’ bedroom door open and shut. He quickly rummages in his closet, searching for his red converse, but remembers they’re downstairs by the door. Keith slowly opens his bedroom door and tiptoes toward the stairs and towards the kitchen. He pauses when he hears the sink turn off and hears someone walk towards the stairs. Keith steps behind a wall and sees Krolia make her way towards the stairs and watches her go up the stairs, over to Keith’s room. She puts her hand on the doorknob and turns it, but stops halfway and shakes her head before heading over to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. Keith blinks in confusion, but finishes his mission and grabs his shoes and coat then heads back up to his room. He shuts and locks the door so his parents don’t walk in the room and see him gone. Though, now that Keith thinks about it, they probably won’t.

He puts on his coat and brings his shoes over to the window, hoping to still see Lance outside and, to Keith’s luck, he is. Keith quickly ties his shoes and carefully opens the window, peering down at the ledge, seeing a steep staircase descending down to the ground. “Lance!” Keith shouts in a whisper down to him.

Lance looks up and smiles widely when he sees Keith. “Keith! What are you doing up there?”

Keith gently closes his window but leaves it open a crack so he can get back in. “I told you I’d try to come out later!” He carefully descends the stairs and hurries over to Lance. “I’m keeping my promise!”

“Why are you sneaking out the window?” Lance wonders, shooing Shiro off his chest so he can stand up.

“Because my parents wouldn’t let me come out earlier, so I waited for them to head to bed,” Keith replies. “I got the doll you gave me. How did your grandpa have one that looked exactly like me?”

Lance shrugs. “That’s what I thought when I saw it! But I have no idea!” He leads Keith down the path, Shiro trotting closely behind. “It was a really weird moment for me because I didn’t know if I should give it to you or throw it away or ask my grandpa about it. I ruled out the throwing away one because that would’ve been rude since, first of all, it’s my grandpa’s and, second of all, it looks like you and you’re my friend and I’d never throw you away.” He winces. “That sounds weird. I’m sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve been around someone who won’t yell at me for talking so much.”

Keith chuckles. “I mean you do talk a lot, but I’ve got no one else to talk to me!”

Lance elbows him playfully. “You’re right! Well, I won’t be out for much longer…my grandpa sent me out here to get some more wood for our fireplace then I have to go back home.”

“That’s okay,” Keith says. “I’ll help you get the wood! It’s better than sitting in a lonely house.”

Lance and Keith exchange a smile before making their way into the woods, Shiro now leading the way. “So, what school are you attending here?” Lance wonders, trying to make conversation.

“Um, I think it’s called Garrison Prep? I’m not one hundred percent sure though,” Keith replies.

“That’s where I go!” Lance exclaims happily. “This is great! You’re gonna love it there - well, the principal is kind of a jerk, and the history teacher-” He pauses. “Okay…maybe not so much the teachers, but there are other fun things!”

Keith chuckles as they arrive at a clearing in the trees where some chopped up logs are. “I can’t wait to find all this out! There’s this new red leather jacket I saw and-”

Lance winces as he collects some wood in his arms. “Keith, I hate to break it to you, but there’s a uniform policy.”

“What?! That’s crap!” Keith exclaims as he grabs an armful of wood himself. “What kind of establishment requires a uniform?!”

“Uh, why do you want to wear a red leather jacket?” Lance wonders as they walk out of the forest. “What kind of message will that send?”

Keith shrugs. “I dunno…I thought it would be cool.”

Lance leads them to a wheelbarrow where they set the pieces of wood. “I-I’m sure it’d be really cool! I just think it’s a little strange.”

Keith doesn’t meet Lance’s eyes and looks back at his own house. “I should go back inside. I’m kinda tired.”

“Keith, are you okay?” Lance wonders with a concerned expression.

He elects not to answer that question. “Goodnight, Lance.” Keith walks back over to the stairs and quietly makes his way up them. He opens the window back up and slips through before shutting it. Through the glass, Keith sees Lance’s confused and disappointed expression but closes his blinds once Lance turns away and begins making his way back to his own house. Keith takes his shoes and jacket off and climbs into bed.

As he finally gets settled, he hears a squeaking sound by his door. Keith sits up and sees a mouse lingering by the door before squeezing through the crack. He throws the covers off and runs to the door to open it. The mouse runs down the stairs, and Keith quickly pursues after it into the living room where it disappears behind the small door in the wall. Keith’s eyes widen in shock when he sees that it’s been cracked open. He slowly approaches the door and grabs the handle, slowly opening it to reveal a wide and colorful passage leading to another door. Keith looks behind him to see if anyone’s following him before crawling through the door.

On the other side, he rolls out into the living room again; however, this one is much brighter, full of colorful furniture and no dust bunnies. Even the painting of the boy above the fireplace looks cheerful. Keith gets to his feet and smells something sweet and delicious coming from the kitchen. He wanders over to find his mother cooking. “Mom?” Keith asks.

When she slowly turns around to greet him, everything about her is almost the same. She still has the long, jet black hair that is pulled into a low ponytail in the back and the same magenta tips. The only difference is, instead of her signature violet eyes, black buttons sit in their place. His eyes widen. “Y-you’re not my mom,” Keith stammers. “Who are you?”

The woman chuckles. “Of course I’m your mother! I’m your Other Mother silly - everyone has one!” Keith calms down a bit and decides to just refer to this woman as ‘Other Krolia.’ It seemed easier than questioning everything. “Would you collect your Other Father from his study? Dinner is almost ready.” Other Krolia gives him a kind smile before turning back to the food.

Keith nods and hurries off to find his Other Father, looking much livelier than his real father ever did. He’ll call this man Other Seth.

Instead of typing on a computer, which Seth would always be doing, Other Seth sits on a small bench in front of a large, white grand piano. He hums to himself while his fingers fly across the keys, playing a soft, but lively melody. “Dad?” Keith asks.

Other Seth turns, removing his hands from the piano, but it continues to play by itself. Two puppet hands emerge from the open part of the piano where the strings are, continuing to play Other Seth’s original melody. “Keith! Oh, I am so happy to see you!” He stands up to give Keith a hug.

“Really?” Keith asks with a smile forming on his face. “My real dad usually frowns in disappointment when he sees me.”

“Nonsense! I’ve never been prouder of you than I am right now!” Other Seth exclaims. “How about a song?!” He clears his throat and the piano starts playing a jazzy, upbeat tune.

 

_ Makin’ up a song about Keith Kogane _

_ He’s a precious gift, a blessing - not a pain  _

 

The piano starts moving in a circle while Seth continues to sing to Keith.

 

_ He’s as tough as a lion _

_ Nothing can tear him down because he’s too strong and brave, that Keith Kogane _

 

_ He protects and defends his friends _

_ Mom and I will follow him through all odds and ends _

_ Everyone will love Keith Kogane _

 

“Um,” Keith interrupts as the hands stop on a note. “Sorry, but  _ she _ says it’s time for dinner. I liked the song though.”

Other Seth smiles and stands up from the piano bench to follow Keith into the kitchen. Other Krolia has the table set with an entire feast. A juicy-looking turkey sits at the center of the table while delicious side platters scatter the table around it. Keith sees corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, green beans, and so much more. He smiles widely and sits down, ready to dig in. Other Krolia serves him food and they all talk with each other about Keith’s day before he listens to his Other Parents share about their lives.

Keith can hardly contain his excitement when he finds out Other Krolia and Other Seth are much more fun than his real parents. They show an enjoyment for mud and Other Krolia even shares with him that it’s a natural remedy for poison oak. Keith glances down at his taped hand but chooses not to mention it right now. He doesn’t want the happy mood to end.

Once they finish dinner, Other Seth begins to clear the table. Other Krolia turns to Keith and smiles. “Keith, would you like to play a game?” she asks.

Keith’s smile wavers slightly. “Well, I would love to, but I better go back home and to bed. I’m really very tired.”

Other Krolia looks disappointed for a second, but her smile returns. “Okay, whatever you wish, Keith. Come, I’ll take you to your ‘other’ room.” She motions for him to follow her. Keith follows her up the stairs to where his real bedroom is located, but, instead of being empty, gray, and boring, this room is filled with colorful wallpaper and knick-knacks that speak. Next to his bed on his nightstand is a picture of Keith’s two best friends from Michigan. They also have button eyes and wave to them from inside the frame.

Keith smiles widely at Other Krolia and climbs into bed. Before she leaves, Other Krolia removes the tape from Keith’s hand then applies mud to it before wrapping it up again. She kisses his forehead and walks out of the room, shutting the lights off as she goes. Keith falls asleep with a smile on his face, happy to have met his Other Parents. He already seems to like them better than his actual ones.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, Keith wakes up and frowns when he sees that he’s back in his old room. He feels something on his hand and unwraps it to see that the poison oak is gone. Keith gets out of his bed and hurries downstairs, avoiding his parents, to see if the small door is open again, but frowns when he finds it is bricked up again.

“Keith?” a deep voice asks from the entryway.

Keith jumps out of his skin and scurries away from the door, turning to see his dad standing in the doorway to the living room. His eyebrows are furrowed and his arms are crossed. “Keith, what on Earth are you doing?”

“Uh - nothing!” Keith exclaims, scrambling to his feet. “I just-”

Seth shakes his head. “Stop fooling around and go get dressed, Keith.”

Keith nods and hurries back upstairs, not wanting to upset his dad any further. Keith puts on another pair of black jeans and a white T-shirt then goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair. He walks downstairs into the kitchen and sighs in relief when he sees Krolia sitting there and not Seth. “Hi mom,” Keith greets.

“Good morning, Keith,” Krolia replies. “Sleep well?”

“I did! You’ll never believe what happened,” Keith shares. “That bricked off door in the living room leads to another world! You and dad were there…sort of. They had button eyes but they were my Other Parents! Other Dad sang me a song and Other Mom made delicious food!”

“That sounds like a lovely dream, Keith,” Krolia replies, probably half listening.

“What?! It wasn’t a dream! It actually happened!” Keith exclaims. “I had poison oak and now I don’t! Other Mom put mud on it, and now it’s all better!” He shows Krolia his hand. “See?!”

She sighs. “Maybe you should go tell your dream to the dingbats downstairs.”

Keith tilts his head in confusion. “Back in Michigan, I thought you said they were magicians?”

Krolia looks at Keith. “I did…now I’m calling them dingbats. Keith, please just let me work.”

Rolling his eyes, Keith slips on his shoes that he brought from upstairs and marches out the door. Since it’s no longer raining, he doesn’t grab his raincoat. Out on the porch, Keith trips over a pile of mail, almost falling down onto the ground. He scowls at the packages and snatches them to see who they’re to. He reads that they’re addressed to someone named ‘Mister Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe’ - the man who lives upstairs. Keith sighs to himself,  _ I probably should give him his mail. _

Keith treks up the stairs and knocks on the Coran’s door then waits for a response. He hears something clatter to the ground before the door opens. Keith comes face to face with a very eccentric man with vivid orange hair and a mustache. “Hello! Who might you be?” he asks with an English accent.

“My name is Keith Kogane. I live downstairs,” Keith replies, holding up Coran’s mail. “I tripped on your mail.”

“Ah! Yes! Thank you!” Coran gladly takes the packages. “Kevin was it?”

“Keith.”

“Right, well, Kevin, this is the important cheese I ordered for the circus mice I’m training,” Coran exclaims. “I’m hoping it will alleviate their musical difficulties.”

“Circus mice?” Keith asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Precisely! I’ll be putting on a show with them! Do come by when it’s all ready.” He closes his mouth when he hears squeaking from behind him.

Keith turns to walk away, but Coran grabs his arm and stops him. “I have a message from the mice. They say ‘do not go through the little door’.” He releases Keith’s arm then shuts the door.

Unnerved, Keith hurriedly makes his way down two levels to where the magicians Mister Matthew, Matt for short, Holt and Miss Katherine ‘Pidge’ Holt live. He knocks on the door and Matt opens the door to let him inside. “You must be Keith Kogane! We’ve heard so much about you!” he exclaims. “I’m Matthew Holt, but you can call me Matt.”

“Matt, the only thing we know is that he moved in with his family,” his sister says as she walks out. “I’m Katherine Holt, but you can call me Pidge.”

Keith smiles. “It’s nice to meet you both.” He looks at the wall of pictures of dogs. “That’s a lot of dogs up there.”

“Yeah, they’re all named Rover,” Pidge replies. “When they grow old, we get a new one.” As she says that, another Scottie comes running into the room nearly knocking Keith down. He chuckles and scratches the dog behind the ears.

“He’s very cute,” Keith observes as Matt walks in with three cups of tea.

“Yes, this one has got to be our favorite,” Matt says, offering Keith one of the cups. “So, what made you drop by?”

“I want your guys’ opinion on something,” Keith starts. “My mom thinks it’s just a dream, but it’s real! There’s this little door in my house that takes me to this Other World where there my Other Parents are! They’re much nicer and more fun than my real parents, but I can’t seem to stay over there.”

Keith continues to tell Matt and Pidge about his time over there, answering their questions when they ask. Once Keith’s tea is finished, Pidge asks to see it. “Hmm, your tea leaves say-” She suddenly gasps, looking at Keith with wide eyes. “Keith, you’re in grave danger. Look, there’s a gnarled hand in here.” She holds it out for him to see. “Whatever door you’re talking about, I wouldn’t go in there anymore.”

Matt takes the cup from her and looks at it. “There’s no danger! I see a giraffe from my perspective.”

Pidge glares at her brother. “No, there’s a hand in there!”

The two continue arguing as Keith gets up to leave, feeling scared about what Pidge said. He thinks back to Coran when he told Keith not to follow the mice through the door. It couldn’t be bad, right? That place is so much better than the world Keith is living in right now! They’re probably wrong…they all seem like dingbats after all.

Keith steps outside, pushing the thoughts away from his mind. He frowns as he looks around at the thick layer of fog on the ground. Something rustles from in the bush, and Keith walks over to find Lance spying on him with a three-turret lens. He crosses his arms and glares at Lance. “Why are you spying on me?”

Lance jumps and comes out from behind the bush, Shiro perched on his shoulders. “I-I wasn’t spying on you! I was hunting for banana slugs!”

“Mhmm, sure.” Keith rolls his eyes. “Why’s the cat on your shoulders? He some kind of wuss-puss?” Keith snickers when the cat seems to glare at him.

Lance giggles. “He just doesn’t like getting his feet wet.” He looks at the Holt’s door then back at Keith. “So, what were you doing in there?”

“Oh, I just had a weird dream, and my mom told me to go tell them,” Keith replies. “Apparently they’re magicians, but my mom insists on saying they’re dingbats.”

Lance laughs. “That’s funny! Your mom sounds like a really funny person.”

“I mean I guess she is when she’s not telling me to stop bothering her,” Keith replies. “You wanna come and meet her?”

“Um-” Lance starts.

“Oh, wait, never mind,” Keith says. “You can’t.”

“I just - my grandfather thinks it’s dangerous,” Lance replies, kicking a stone aside. “He had a twin sister growing up when he lived there as a child, but she disappeared. My grandfather thinks she was stolen.”

Keith shrugs. “Or maybe she just ran away.” His thoughts travel back to the doll Lance gave him yesterday. “Hey, so how did you find that doll anyway? Why does it look like me?” Shiro hops off of Lance’s shoulders and onto the railing by Keith’s porch.

“I dunno. It’s been up in my grandfather’s attic since he was a kid. It was in an unopened box of his sister’s old stuff. It’s gotta be as old as the house.”

Keith opens his mouth to reply, but they hear Lance’s grandfather calling him again. Lance gives Keith an apologetic smile before running off. As Keith watches Lance run home, he continues to question where the doll came from. If it’s been in an unopened box since his grandfather was a kid, there’s no way it could look like Keith - he hadn’t even been born yet!

So, why would it look just like him?

 

* * *

 

 

That night, Keith leaves out bits of cheese in his bedroom before going to sleep hoping for another visit from the mice. Sure enough, he’s woken up later by their squeaking and follows them through the open portal in the living room. He smiles at the bright furniture in the living room and makes his way into the kitchen where he finds Other Krolia cooking in the kitchen. Keith notices her using the very cheese Keith laid out, but doesn’t mention it.

“Hello Keith,” she says without turning around. “Would you fetch your Other Father? He should be in the garden.”

“Sure thing!” Keith exclaims cheerfully. He makes his way outside where he finds Other Seth planting colorful, fluorescent flowers and snapdragons using a tractor shaped like a praying mantis. With each step Keith takes, the plants come to life around him. Some hummingbirds fly past his head on their way to the large tree in the center. Keith looks to his left as he approaches the bridge and smiles at the moat of lilies in the water and the pumpkin patch along the edge of the creek.

“Keith! You’re just in time for a ride!” Other Seth exclaims as he approaches Keith, extending a hand to help him onto the machine.

He accepts Other Seth’s hand and, once on, the mantis sprouts propellers and flies them above the gardens. Keith smiles widely at all the beautiful flowers and gasps when he notices the big picture of the garden has been made to look like his face. The lighter flowers make up his skin while the darker ones make up his hair. Keith smiles at the violet ones where his eyes are, feeling as though they are a perfect shade to match his real eyes. Other Seth lands the machine by the door and he and Keith both get off as Other Krolia finishes setting the table for dinner.

After they finish eating, Other Krolia opens the front door and introduces Other Lance. “Keith, this is Other Lance. I made this one so he couldn’t talk.” She smiles widely. “I thought you would like it.”

Keith raises an eyebrow and looks Other Lance up and down. This Lance dresses the same as the real one but doesn’t have the same bright smile as the real Lance. Keith finds himself missing Lance’s charming voice and beautiful blue eyes. Though, not wanting to make Other Krolia upset, he puts on a smile and nods at her. “Thank you, I like him.”

Other Krolia gives Keith’s shoulder a squeeze. “Excellent! Now, I think you should head over to Mr. Smythe’s…he has a surprise for you!” She waves at Keith then shuts the door.

Keith walks up to Lance and examines him further. “The real Lance would have said some stupid joke by now,” Keith comments, looking up at Other Lance’s face. “I haven’t seen him in a while. I miss him.”

Suddenly, Other Lance takes Keith’s hand in his own, offering a reassuring smile. He opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out. He sighs defeatedly and looks at the ground. “Hey, it’s okay,” Keith says, lifting Other Lance’s face back up. “You’re enough.”

Other Lance smiles widely at Keith once again and pulls him along up the stairs to Other Coran’s house. Unlike the real Coran, Other Coran’s house is covered top to bottom in lavishing circus decorations. The walls and ceiling look like a circus tent with the red and white stripes. Along the walls on the floor, pedal-controlled cannons shoot cotton candy out at Keith and Lance. They barely have time to catch one so they’re not hit with it. The two boys smile at each other in excitement then run to their open seats in the front row.

The circus mice put on a musical show while bouncing on circus balls and doing trapeze acts. Other Coran stands in the middle of everything, directing the mice where to go while wearing a dapper ringmaster’s coat and hat.

At the end of the show, Keith and Lance stand up and give Other Coran and the mice a round of applause before walking back outside. They linger at the top balcony to look up at the clear night sky and the shimmering stars. Keith closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in, smelling the fresh air and the pine trees. For once in his life, he feels completely calm and happy. His parents would be yelling at him for wasting time outside and not helping with the chores inside the house, but then he would get yelled at for doing it wrong then be sent back to his room. Why couldn’t his real life be as serene and carefree like this? Other Krolia and Other Seth seem to genuinely enjoy hearing Keith talk whereas the real Krolia and Seth cringe whenever Keith opens his mouth.

He does, however, miss the real Lance. Even though Keith’s only known him for a couple days, there’s something about him that Keith admires. Maybe it’s his personality or the way he talks - whatever it is, Keith  _ likes _ it. He likes Lance…a lot.

Keith opens his eyes and looks over at Other Lance. This one seems to have the same personality except for the fact that he can’t talk. He doesn’t have the real Lance’s blue eyes either which makes Keith miss those ocean blue orbs even more. However, this one seems to be more open, more willing to put himself out there. Other Lance turns and looks at Keith when he senses his gaze. He raises an eyebrow in question then reaches up to brush a piece of Keith’s hair out of his face. Keith’s breath hitches at the tender touch of Other Lance’s fingers, and he reaches up to touch his hand.

“It feels like I’ve known you for a long time, but we’ve only just met today,” Keith whispers.

Other Lance tilts his head and strokes Keith’s cheek reassuringly.

“I just…I want to hear your voice!” Keith exclaims. “I-I’m sorry I thought you were annoying in the real world! No one ever talked to me that much, so I didn’t know how to handle it!” He bites his lip and looks into Other Lance’s button eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Other Lance shakes his head then hugs Keith tightly.

Keith holds back a sob and holds Other Lance like his life depends on it. “You didn’t deserve this…”

They stay like that for a few more minutes before Other Lance takes Keith back to his house to go to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

Keith wakes up the next morning to find himself back in his own bed once more. He groans in irritation and smacks a pillow against his head. How does he always end up back her?! It’s not fair!

“Keith!” Krolia exclaims from downstairs. “Hurry up and get ready! We’re going into town to shop for your school clothes!”

_ Great, _ Keith thinks bitterly to himself. He slowly gets out of bed, stretching in the process. His spine cracks and he sighs in content.  He quickly changes into some black jeans and a red shirt then shoves his phone and earbuds into his pocket before heading into the bathroom to brush his teeth. Keith heads downstairs and finds his mom on her phone waiting at the kitchen table.

Krolia turns when she hears him walk into the room. “Good morning, Keith! Did you sleep well?”

Keith nods, not wanting to mention the Other World to her again. She’ll just ridicule him for believing in such nonsense. He puts his shoes on and walks to the door with his mom. “Is dad coming with?” Keith asks.

“Yes, he’s waiting in the car. We have to drop him off at the train station so he can deliver the latest edition of the garden catalog to the editor,” Krolia says.

“Okay.” Keith steps outside first, feeling slightly happier at the sunny day. He looks around for any signs of Lance since he wouldn’t pass up a chance to be outside on a day like this. To his dismay, Lance isn’t anywhere in sight nor can Keith hear the engine of his bike.

“Keith, what are you looking for?” Krolia asks, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Nothing,” Keith replies sullenly. “It’s nothing.” He makes his way over to the car and gets in the back seat behind his dad. Seth doesn’t acknowledge his presence but makes sure to give Krolia a kiss on the cheek when she gets in the car.

Keith rolls his eyes and pulls his phone and earbuds out of his pocket to listen to music. He puts them in his ear and clicks shuffle on his playlist. Keith looks out the window, getting lost in the scenery and music. He barely even notices when they stop at the train station to drop Seth off. His father walks away without saying goodbye, and Krolia continues on the road to the clothing store. She parks across the street and she and Keith get out of the car. He takes one earbud out so he can at least partly hear what’s going on around him and follows Krolia inside.

Inside the store, Keith sees a vast variety of clothes offered, ranging from men to women, kids to adults, and small to large. Krolia goes over to the uniform section while Keith finds himself drawn to the accessory part of the store. He looks at the different hats and gloves being sold, some obnoxiously colored like cheetah prints or bright purple polka dots. Keith goes to walk away but stops when his eyes land on a pair of black fingerless gloves. He smiles widely and snatches them off the rack, hurrying over to his mother to show them to her. “Hey, mom? Can I get these?” he asks with a hopeful smile on his face.

She turns to look at him, frowning at the gloves. “Why on  _ Earth _ would you want these?! No, go put them back. We’re here to get you a school uniform, not to get you into a biker gang.”

Keith scowls and storms back over to put the gloves back. He finds a chair to sit in and plays games on his phone until Krolia finds him to make him try some clothes on. Needless to say, he hates everything she picks out for him, but she still buys the clothes anyway because they fit and are part of the dress code at Garrison Prep. Yeah, Keith’s gonna hate it there.

Krolia pays for the clothes then leads Keith back outside to the car. He gets in the front seat since they won’t be picking Seth up ‘till later. The car ride is silent from Keith’s end since he has his music to listen to. Krolia tries to make conversation, but Keith only gives one worded answers in the hope she’ll get the message to stop trying since he’s half listening anyway.

“I locked that small door you found in the living room,” Krolia suddenly says, snapping Keith out of his thoughts.

“You  _ what _ ?!” Keith demands. “Why would you do that?!”

“I found mouse droppings by it. I have no idea how they got through that brick wall, but I don’t want to deal with it anymore,” Krolia answers. “Why is it such a big deal to you? It’s just a brick wall, Keith.”

Keith ignores her, seething with anger. What gave her the right to lock up the one place that he finds joy in? If she found out about his friendship with Lance, she’d surely put an end to that right away! He’d have to find a way to reopen the door once they got home, but how?

He pushes aside the thoughts as they arrive back home. They walk inside and Keith starts taking his shoes off as Krolia walks into the kitchen to open the fridge. “Wow, there’s nothing in here!” she exclaims. “Keith, would you like to come grocery shopping with me? You could pick out something fun for us to have for dinner.”

Keith glares at her as he drops his shoes on the ground. “I’d rather not.” He ignores her saddened expression as he storms out of the room. Keith stops when he’s out of sight to listen if Krolia leaves. He hears Krolia murmur something to herself before walking out the door, shutting and locking it behind her. Taking advantage of his solitude, Keith looks around the house for the skeleton key. He first heads to the key drawer and snoops through there, hoping to find it, but he isn’t surprised when he doesn’t find it there.

Now, where would Krolia hide it? Probably somewhere up high where she thinks Keith would never look. Hah, well, jokes on her because Keith just saw through her pathetic attempt. He smirks up at the wall above the entrance to the kitchen where the black skeleton key hangs. “Gotcha,” Keith whispers to himself. He looks around for a chair or something tall for him to stand on. The dining room chairs might work, but he doesn’t want to risk scuffing them up just to have his parents notice and punish him. He hurries to the closet under the stairs, smirking when he finds a tall step stool. Keith grabs it and brings it over to the key. He sets it on the ground and stands on it, reaching for the key. His fingers brush up against it as he strains on his tiptoes, trying to grab it. A few seconds later, Keith grabs it and jumps off the stool before he can fall.

He smiles at it then hurries over to the living room to investigate the door. To his surprise, he finds it already open. Keith smiles happily then shoves the key in his pocket before getting ready to crawl through. As he puts a hand through, he hears something hit the window. Keith sits up and spots the feral cat watching him through the window. Shiro seems to have a disapproving look on his face…could cats even show emotion?

Whatever. Keith rolls his eyes at the cat and crawls through anyway. He goes through the normal colorful tunnel before reaching the door at the other end. Keith rolls through it, expecting to be greeted by Other Krolia but is shocked to find the house seemingly empty. He walks through the halls over to the kitchen to find the table covered with treats and different foods. A gift box sits at the middle with Keith’s name on it. He eagerly opens it to find a new outfit for him to wear and a note from Other Krolia explaining that Other Matt and Other Pidge have something to show Keith after lunch.

Keith decides to leave the clothes in the box, not wanting to ruin them right away. He eats a couple of things for lunch then heads outside where he comes upon the cat perched on the railing outside. “Whoa! You must be a copy too!” Keith exclaims. “But you’re missing the button eyes.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong,” the cat says, startling Keith. “I’m the real world Shiro.”

“What the -  _ you can talk?! _ ” Keith wonders. “How did you get here?!”

“Yes, I can talk,” Shiro says, licking his paw. “Was I not obvious enough?”

Keith huffs in annoyance. “How are you here?”

“I have the ability to transverse the barriers between worlds,” Shiro shares smugly. “Other Mother has tried to keep me out but to no avail. She despises cats.” He then chuckles. “It’s the kind of game we play.”

“Why are you here now if she hates you?” Keith wonders.

“Well, when I’m not just trying to piss her off, I’m here keeping an eye on you,” Shiro says. “You’re in grave danger, Keith. Other Mother is not who you think she is. Other Lance told me of her scheme…he’s worried about you as well.”

Keith furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head. “I don’t believe you. She treats me better than my real mother does. Besides, Other Lance is mute so how could he have told you?”

“Cats have superior senses. You should-” His head suddenly jerks around. “I detect something. I’ll be back later.” Shiro leaps off the railing and takes off running into the distance.

Keith rolls his eyes in the cat’s direction then makes his way downstairs to Other Matt’s and Other Pidge’s apartment. When he walks in he sees that the entire room has been transformed into a large auditorium occupied by hundreds of Scottie dogs. Keith makes his way towards the front where he finds Other Lance in the front row. “Hi,” Keith greets with a smile, taking a seat next to him.

Other Lance takes Keith’s hand and gives it a squeeze as a greeting.

Once Keith’s situated, the lights dim down and two spotlights shine on the stage. From behind the red curtain, Other Matt and Other Pidge step out, each dressed in a magician’s hat and a black cape. “Welcome everyone! Thank you for coming to the greatest show you will ever have the privilege of seeing!” Other Matt exclaims.

“Yes, even though  _ I _ am the superior magician, it will still be a great show,” Other Pidge adds.

Other Matt glares at her then looks back at the crowd. “Anyway! Let’s start off with a few card tricks!” He makes a deck of cards appear from under his cloak.

“That’s lame,” Other Pidge comments.

“Shut up!” Other Matt exclaims. “Now, I will hold up a card, so I want everyone to memorize it!” He shuffles around the deck then holds up a six of diamonds. “Does everyone have it memorized? Great.” He slips it back into the deck then shuffles it again. “Now, I will say the magic words and pull out that exact card!”

Other Matt begins shuffling them but then drops them so they scatter all over the stage. “Oh no…”

“Can you do  _ anything _ right?!” Other Pidge demands.

“No matter!” Other Matt exclaims, ignoring her. He picks up a random card off the ground. “Is this your card?!”

Keith narrows his eyes at the king of spades then shakes his head. Other Matt grabs another one, lifting up an ace of hearts. Keith shakes his head again then Other Matt crosses his arms angrily. “Well, then it must not be in here!” He looks at Keith. “Keith! Please reach into your left pocket.

Keith raises an eyebrow at him then reaches into his pocket, eyes widening when he feels something inside. He pulls it out and finds a folded up card in there. He begins unfolding it, and his jaw drops when he sees it’s the six of diamonds.

“Is  _ that _ your card?!” Other Matt asks with a triumphant smile.

Keith nods happily then he, Other Lance, and the dogs cheer for him. The two magicians continue with their show, making various things appear and disappear - including a few dogs and Other Lance at one point.

For their finale, Other Matt shoves Other Pidge into a box and saws her in half. Keith has no idea how he did it, but it was amazing to watch.

After the show, Keith and Other Lance walk back up to Other Mother’s apartment together as Keith excitedly raves about the show. Other Krolia opens the door and smiles when she hears Keith talking positively about it. She motions Keith inside, but Other Lance stays behind looking sullen. Other Krolia runs her fingers through Keith’s hair as she points to her mouth, silently telling Other Lance to smile. She shuts the door and ushers Keith into the dining room where a small box sits on the table.

“Keith, do you like it here?” she wonders.

“Yes! Oh my gosh, this is so much fun!” Keith exclaims.

“Well, you could stay here forever if you want to,” Other Krolia reveals. “I would just have to perform one little thing.” She slides the little box towards Keith.

Keith lifts open the lid to reveal two black buttons with a sewing thread and a needle above them. His eyes widen in shock, realizing that Shiro might be right about all of this.

“The buttons are available in any color! Blue, green, violet…” As she lists off each color, the buttons turn to that color before finally reverting back to black.

Internally, Keith’s laughing hysterically for thinking he’d ever let this insane woman sew buttons into his eyes, but externally, he’s showing no emotion. He doesn’t want her to think he’s onto her. “Um, could I think things over? I’d like to head to bed to sleep on it,” Keith requests.

Other Krolia raises an eyebrow but nods, taking the box away from Keith. As he heads upstairs, Keith can feel her button eyes watching his every move. She must be suspicious about things, but Keith doesn’t think she knows everything yet. Once he gets upstairs, he quickly shuts and locks the door then shoves every decoration in the room away so they can’t look at him.

He hops into bed and prays to go to sleep, hoping tomorrow morning this would all be over.

 

* * *

 

 

The next day, Keith jumps out of bed only to find that he’s still in the Other World. He begins panicking, running downstairs to see where Other Mother is but finds no sign of her. Keith pauses in front of Other Seth’s office when he hears a sad, morose melody coming from inside. He peeks in and sees him playing the piano with his puppet hands. “Other Seth?” Keith asks, getting his attention. “I want to see Other Krolia. I want to go home.”

“Oh! We mustn’t talk when  _ mother’s _ not around!” Other Seth exclaims hysterically.

Keith huffs in annoyance. “Well, I’m going to find Other Lance! He’ll help me!”

“There’s no point!” Other Seth exclaims, turning to look at Keith. “Lance pulled a looooong face and  _ mother _ didn’t like it.” His own face elongates horribly as he says so before he is silenced by the puppet hands.

Keith stifles a scream before running out of the house, beginning to walk away. Shiro approaches him and they walk together as the Other World begins to deteriorate into nothing. “Other Mother only created what she knew you’d like,” he shares.

Soon enough they find themselves walking straight back towards the house. “Huh…small world,” Keith comments.

“Now, listen to me. Other Mother wants to keep you,” Shiro explains, “possibly for something to love…or to eat-” He suddenly lunges into a bush and comes out with a circus mouse in his mouth. Shiro’s jaws clamp down and the mouse transforms into an ugly sandbag rat. “I don’t like rats at the best of times, but this one was sounding an alarm.” He gives Keith a stern expression. “Be careful, Keith.”

Keith nods as he makes his way back into the house. He walks into the living room and sees that a large beetle-shaped bureau is blocking the small door. The other furniture comes to life and grabs Keith to seat him in front of Other Mother. Keith struggles against them, but they’re too strong. He grimaces when he sees her eating cocoa beetles. Every time she bites down on one, a sickening  _ crunch _ rings throughout the room.

“Let me go!” Keith demands. “You have no right to keep me here!”

Other Krolia glares at him. “After everything I’ve done for you?! How dare you treat me like this!” She stands up angrily. “I’m going to give you to the count of three to apologize.”

Keith clenches his jaw and holds his ground, refusing to say anything.

“One.” Other Krolia’s limbs begin shaking and growing longer. Her hair begins to turn white and get more gnarly.

“Two.” her jaw comes out more and her face begins to misshapen. Keith looks up at her with terror and disgust as she gets taller and taller, limbs turning from normal human ones to gross, fuzzy, slimy black ones.

“THREE!” she roars, becoming almost as tall as the ceiling. Her entire abdomen is three times larger than it was before and she has two more sets of limbs than she did before. She almost looks like a spider.

Keith screams loudly as Other Krolia grabs him and takes him to the hallway where a mirror is. She throws him through and he lands on the other side of with a loud thud. He hits his head against the wall and groans, struggling to get to his feet. Keith glares daggers at Other Krolia and charges at the mirror but slams into the wall.

“What the-” Keith pounds on the invisible wall. “Let me out!”

“You may come out when you learn to be a loving son!” Other Krolia exclaims, walking away.

Keith yells again, banging his fists against the wall, but after a minute he gives up. He turns to look at the room. A single, dusty bed is in one corner and an empty little table in the other. Keith’s breath hitches when he senses someone else in the room with him. He turns to his right and almost screams when he sees three ghostly children floating near him - two girls, one boy. The girl on the left has dark skin, a blue dress with pink accents, and long, wavy white hair. The girl in the middle has short brown hair, a simple green dress on, and dark skin as well. The boy has on a yellow shirt, green vest, and khaki pants with longish dark brown hair (not as long as Keith’s) with an orange headband tied around his forehead, probably to keep the hair out of his face. Each child is adorned with the signature button eyes of this world.

“Shh, be quiet!” the boy exclaims. “Haggar might be listening.”

“Who are you?” Keith asks.

“We do not remember our names,” the girl with the white hair says. She floats down to stand in front of Keith. Something about her seems familiar, but he can’t quite put his finger on it. “We do remember how Haggar used dolls in our image to spy on us to see what made us unhappy.”

“Wait, you guys were also trapped here?!” Keith wonders. “B-but you’re all dead!”

The girl with the green dress nods, floating down to stand next to the other girl. She holds her hand out for the boy and they hold hands. “She lured us here into the Other World and gave us treats and games. Unfortunately, she somehow tricked us two together.” The girl in the green dress gestures to her and the boy.

“She told us she loved us and could give us everything we wanted,” the boy continues.

“Wanting more, we allowed Haggar to sew buttons into our eyes,” the first girl adds. “But she ate up our lives and cast our souls aside, locking them in this mirror room. Our eyes were stolen and hidden.” The white-haired girl tilts her head and reaches for Keith’s face to stroke it, but her finger goes right through him. “You remind me of someone…”

The boy shakes his head at her then looks back at Keith. “If you escape, you can set our souls free by finding our eyes. Can you help us?”

Keith nods. “I’ll try. Where-” He yelps as a pair of tan hands suddenly yank him through the mirror. Keith turns around in fear but relaxes when he sees it’s just Other Lance. “Oh, Lance, thank - what happened to you?!” He takes Other Lance’s face in his hands and carefully traces his thumb over the string forcing his mouth into a wide smile. Other Lance exhales, sounding like he’d cry if he was able to. Keith furrows his eyebrows and lightly pulls at the string, expecting Other Lance to flinch, but he simply nods. “Are you sure?”

Other Lance nods again then Keith carefully tugs at the string before he hears a snap. He then pulls at the string, undoing it from Lance’s mouth so he can move it freely. Keith tosses it aside and smiles again. Other Lance returns the smile, more genuine this time and leads him towards the small door, pointing at it. He opens the door and gently ushers Keith inside.

Keith grabs Other Lance’s hand to make him look at Keith. “Come with me. You’ll be safe.”

Other Lance smiles slightly and shakes his head no then pulls off one of his gloves, revealing that he’s nothing but sand.

“I don’t care! You’re worth more to me than that!” Keith exclaims.

“ _ Oooooh, Keeeeeeith! _ ” Haggar exclaims.

“Lance, please,” Keith begs. “I don’t want to lose you.”

Other Lance shakes his head and points at himself then through the tunnel in the door. He probably means that his real version self is still out there. Keith swallows a sob and feels a tear roll down his cheek. He pulls Other Lance into a tight hug, feeling more tears running down his cheeks. Other Lance pats his back then pulls away, offering a reassuring smile. Something snaps in Keith causing Other Lance’s face shifts to real Lance’s face and his heart breaks a little. Other Lance pulls Keith in for a short kiss before completely shoving Keith through the door, slamming it shut.

“ _ KEEEEEITH! _ ” Haggar yells from behind the door.

Keith scrambles back and quickly crawls towards the other door, diving through it. He slams the door shut and locks it, breathing heavily. Keith yells in frustration and pounds his fist on the door, tears streaming down his cheeks. Other Lance is going to suffer because of Keith’s dumb choices. He lets out a loud sob and falls back onto the ground, key clattering on the ground. Keith expects his mom to come in and yell at him for being loud, but she never comes.

Keith collects himself, stands up, and walks into the kitchen, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion when he sees the groceries Krolia went to get lying on the kitchen table, moldy and covered in flies. “What the heck?” Keith looks around the room. “Mom?! MOM!”

No one responds, causing him to worry more. He reaches for the phone but stops when someone knocks on the door. Keith runs over to open it, smiling widely when he sees that it’s the real Lance. “Oh, Lance! I’m so happy to see-”

“I need the doll back,” Lance interrupts, not as cheery as he usually is.

Keith blinks in confusion. “Um, okay. I don’t really know where it went, but you can come in and help me look.”

Lance’s breath hitches slightly, but after a couple seconds, he nods. Keith steps aside so he can walk inside. “Where did you last have it?” Lance asks.

“In my room, but I don’t think it’s there anymore. Why do you need it back?” Keith wonders.

“My grandfather is angry I gave it away because it belonged to his missing sister,” Lance explains.

Keith turns to look at Lance. “Wait…did she have long white hair and a pink dress?”

Lance nods. “Yeah, how did you know that?”

“She’s one of the ghost children!” Keith exclaims incredulously. As he leads Lance upstairs, Keith explains everything to Lance, from the ghost children to the button eyes to the other versions of everyone. He also explains that the doll is meant to spy on everything that’s wrong with a child’s life before the Other Mother gives false promises to trap them in the world.

They get up to Keith’s room and Keith opens the closet where he last remembers shoving it. He looks around, moving stuff around but doesn’t find anything. “I have no idea where it went! It has a mind of its own so it’s probably around here somewhere.” Keith turns to look at Lance and raises an eyebrow at Lance’s wide eyes. “What?”

“You’re insane!” Lance exclaims before running out of Keith’s room.

“What - hey! Wait a minute!” Keith yells after him before taking off after him. He follows Lance down the stairs and outside. “LANCE! STOP!”

“No! Leave me alone!” Lance shrieks, turning to look at Keith. “You’re crazy! This is why my grandfather wants me to stay away!”

Keith yells in frustration and chucks a shoe at him, only missing because Lance jumps out of the way. He breaks down in tears when Lance runs off out of sight. How could he do this to Keith?!  _ Especially _ at a time like this! Maybe he didn’t want to be Keith’s friend after all…

Who cares! Who needs him anyway! Keith certainly doesn’t need the validation of that cute boy.

_ Shut up. _

Keith stands up and brushes himself off, walking over to pick up his thrown shoe to put back on. He then makes his way down to Matt’s and Pidge’s to see if they can help him at all. Keith knocks on the door and, a few seconds later, Pidge opens the door and smiles at him. “Oh, hello Keith! Come on in!” she exclaims, stepping aside so Keith can go walk inside. “Matt’s just in the kitchen making tea. What brings you here?”

“My parents are missing,” Keith shares. “My mom left to get groceries and they’re just sitting on the counter, untouched. My dad isn’t back from the town either.”

Matt walks in and sets the tray of tea down then sits next to Pidge. “Missing parents you say…” He looks at Pidge. “Don’t you have something for that?”

Pidge jumps up. “I do! Hold on!” She runs over to a bowl that’s sitting on another table and digs around inside before pulling out a ball of hard taffy. She brings it over to Matt and he breaks it in half to reveal a small, triangular green stone with a hole in the middle like a planchette. “Here, take this.” Pidge grabs it and hands it to Keith. “It’s for lost things.”

“I thought it was for bad things,” Matt interjects.

Pidge turns and glares at him. “No, it’s for  _ lost _ things! Don’t you listen to anything I say?!”

“Sorry, what was that?” Matt wonders.

Keith stands up before Pidge can yell at her brother. “Thank you.”

Pidge nods at Keith. “You’re welcome! Be careful!” She waves at him as he walks out then turns back to yell at Matt.

Keith makes his way back to his house, clutching the stone in his hand. How was he supposed to find his parents with this little stone?! Maybe going to them for help  _ wasn’t _ the smartest idea…

Oh well, too late now! He opens his front door and shuts it then slides down it onto the ground before crying into his hands again. Why did he have to act so coldly to his mom before she left?! She’s gone and he’s never gonna get to apologize to her.

A quiet thud sounds from in front of him, startling him. Keith looks up from his hands and sees the cat sitting in front of him, looking at him closely. “Shiro? Do you know where my parents are?” Keith asks.

Shiro trots off into the living room then comes back with Keith’s doll, but, instead of looking like him, the doll is two-faced, resembling each of his parents. Keith takes it from Shiro and looks at it with a terrified expression. “What the heck?” Keith wonders.

Shiro nudges Keith’s leg with his head then walks into the hallway, stopping in front of the large mirror. Keith gets up to follow then stops in horror when he sees an image of his parents shivering in the cold. Krolia turns and uses her finger to write  _ help us _ on the frosted glass. Keith’s eyes widen in fear and he stumbles backward into the wall.

“Shiro, what happened to them?” Keith asks, looking down at the cat.

The cat points at the doll with his good paw then shakes his head.

Keith looks at the doll in his hand and scrunches his face up. “It’s time to get rid of this thing once and for all.” He walks into the living room and tosses the doll into the fireplace. Keith snatches the box of matches off the mantle and lights one before tossing it onto the wood. He watches the doll burst into flames, slowly curling up before turning to ash. “I have to save my parents, Shiro. I can’t let Haggar kill them, but I can’t do it alone.”

Shiro tilts his head in wonder at Keith.

“After I grab my stuff, will you show me where Lance lives? I should apologize to him,” Keith says.

The cat nods and follows Keith as he walks into the kitchen to grab his shoes and coat. He slips the stone, a knife, and the skeleton key into his pockets then opens the door, letting Shiro out first then follows him down the driveway. Shiro leads Keith down to the house off the main road that Keith remembers seeing when he moved in. It’s painted white and has a red door, but isn’t super big - probably because only Lance and his grandfather live in it. Keith walks up the steps and knocks on the door. He looks down at Shiro who rubs his head against Keith’s ankle as if to reassure him that it’s gonna be okay.

About a minute passes and the door opens to reveal Lance’s surprised face. “Keith? What are you-”

“I’m sorry!” Keith blurts out. “I just…I really need your help, Lance…please.” He looks up at Lance with pleading eyes.

“Keith…I don’t know,” Lance says, rubbing his neck. “How do I know you’re not lying?”

“My parents are missing,” Keith shares. “Please just trust me. We’re friends, aren’t we? I need you.”

Lance sighs, looking inside his house then back at Keith. “Give me a minute to get my jacket and shoes.” He hurries out of view and Keith hears some fumbling around in a closet for a minute or two before Lance comes back into view wearing some dark blue shoes and a green jacket. “Lead the way.”

Keith smiles widely at Lance. “Thank you,” Keith says as they make their way back to Keith’s house.

Lance rolls his eyes and elbows Keith playfully. “I still think you’re insane, but you seemed genuine about your parents being missing. Plus I haven’t seen Shiro take a liking to anyone except me.”

The cat turns his head and narrows his eyes at Lance before hopping onto the railing, waiting for someone to open the door. Keith grabs the handle and lets Lance in first then Shiro follows behind. Shiro leads Lance to the little door and points at it with his tail for him to open it. Lance looks at Keith with a skeptical expression, but Keith nods at him. “Open it,” Keith instructs, handing him the skeleton key.

Lance sighs and grabs the key from Keith and puts it in the keyhole, turning it and opening the door to reveal the colorful tunnel. “Whoa!” Lance exclaim, peering inside as Shiro begins to walk through. “What is this?”

“Keep going,” Keith says, gesturing for Lance to follow the cat. They crawl through and Lance opens the door on the other side and they arrive in the Other World. Lance looks around in awe at the color of the house.

“There’s so much color here,” Lance comments.

“Yes, it was to appeal to Keith in order to trap him here,” Shiro says, licking his paw.

Lance opens his mouth to scream, but Keith quickly covers it. “Shh! Don’t yell. Shiro’s not an ordinary cat, okay? Please just try to stay quiet.”

“Keith’s right,” Shiro agrees. “Now, you two should challenge Other Mother to a game because she never can refuse a game. She won’t play fair, but this is your best chance.”

Lance opens his mouth to respond, but a voice calling from the family room gets their attention. “Keith? Is that you?” Krolia’s voice asks.

“Mom?!” Keith wonders, hurrying over there. He sees her sitting down and goes to hug her, but the figure slowly transforms back into Haggar. Keith’s eyes widen in fear and he stumbles backward, but Lance catches and steadies him.

“Hmm…I see you’ve brought the  _ real _ Lance here. I thought you liked my version better?” Haggar wonders.

“You made him silent,” Keith counters.

“That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?” Haggar inquires, leaning closer to them.

Keith looks up at Lance who seems to be in too much of a terrified trance to realize what Haggar’s saying about him. “No, it wasn’t.”

Haggar stands up straight. “How ungrateful!” She suddenly snatches the skeleton key from Lance’s hand and drops it into her mouth, swallowing it.

Lance screams and grabs Keith’s arm, clearly terrified. He begins to tug Keith’s arm as if to run away, but he runs into Other Seth who has been reduced to a squat, blubbering mess. Other Seth grabs both boys and puts them in a chair, trapping them. Keith struggles against the restraints, but it’s no use.

“Now, Seth, why don’t you go tend to the garden?” Haggar suggests as Other Seth is dragged away by the furniture. Once he’s gone, she turns back to Lance and Keith and leads the chair they’re trapped in into the kitchen, preparing them some food. “Keith, the offer to stay still stands. If you agree, I’ll let Lance go.”

“How about we play a game instead?” Keith proposes. “You like games, don’t you?”

Haggar stops what she’s doing and turns to look at them. “I’m listening.”

“If Lance and I find my real parents and the eyes of the ghost children, you have to let us both go,” Keith says. “If we don’t, I’ll stay with you and let you sew the buttons into my eyes, but you still let Lance go freely.”

Haggar ponders it for a moment then slowly smiles sinisterly. “Fine…deal. I can’t wait for you to join my family, Keith.” She releases the boys. “You have until the moon is completely covered.”

Keith brushes himself off and turns to Lance. “You ready?”

“Wait, give us a clue!” Lance exclaims.

Haggar crosses her arms and rolls her button eyes. “Fine!  _ In each of the three wonders I’ve made just for Keith, the ghost’s eye is lost in plain sight. _ ”

Keith furrows his eyebrows in thought then he grabs Lance’s arm. “The garden!” he exclaims, dragging Lance outside. Keith leads him over to where the giant, colorful garden is and they begin searching for any signs of the ghost children’s eyes and Keith’s parents. While Keith looks through some flower beds, some hummingbird plants attempt to slide into his pocket where the triangular stone is. He manages to swat them away without much struggle, but he finds it interesting that they wanted the stone. Keith pulls the stone out of his pocket and looks through the hole.

He gasps softly when the entire world turns grey except for one colorful ball of yellow light: the first eye. Keith moves the stone away and he sees that it’s disguised as the shift knob on the praying mantis tractor. “Lance!” Keith exclaims, motioning for him to walk over. He hands the stone to him. “Look through this. I found the first eye.”

Lance takes it from him and looks through it, eyebrows raising when he sees the yellow light. “Whoa! That’s really cool! Let’s go get it.” He hands the stone back to Keith and leads him over to it, but stops in his tracks when Other Seth starts the tractor. “Um-”

“RUN!” Keith shrieks as one of the arms on the tractor slashes at Lance. They take off sprinting through the garden as Other Seth chases them on the tractor. “SPLIT UP!”

Keith breaks off toward the right while Lance continues towards the left. Other Seth continues after Keith, trying to snatch him off the ground, but Keith manages to keep his distance. “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!” Keith yells, diving to the side to dodge another swipe. He rolls on the ground and back to his feet to keep running.

“Mother is making me!” Other Seth replies, sounding guilty about it.

Keith huffs and continues forward, spotting the garden pond bridge ahead. He sees Lance waving at him from the other side, motioning for him to hurry up. Keith pushes ahead, running over the bridge as the mantis tractor inches closer and closer to Keith. As Keith nears the end of the bridge, he feels it start to shake and hears it cracking. He yelps when the bridge gives out from underneath him. “ _ LANCE _ !” he screams, reaching out.

Lance hurries to the edge and grabs Keith’s hand before he falls into the lake with Other Seth and the mantis tractor. He pulls him up and they watch the mantis tractor slowly sink down. Keith grips Lance’s hand and gasps when Other Seth reaches up, holding the knob in his hand. Keith takes it from him before he fully submerges in the water.

“We got it,” Keith says breathlessly.

“Look.” Lance points out at the rest of the garden as it begins to wilt, turning grey. Eventually, it hardens, turning to stone and collapses to dust. “It’s all gone.”

Keith looks up at the sky and sees the moon starting to eclipse, signaling a time limit on Keith’s and Lance’s search. “We better keep looking,” Keith states, standing up to brush the dirt off himself.

Lance nods in agreement. “Right. Where should we look next?”

“The magicians that live below me,” Keith replies. “There has to be an eye there.” He leads Lance back towards the house and they walk down the stairs to Other Matt’s and Other Pidge’s place. Keith quietly opens it to reveal a dark, empty room with a single spotlight shining down on a cocooned ball on the stage. Keith looks up at the ceiling and sees the Scottie dogs up there, looking more like bats. He watches Lance approach the stage, pointing at something within the cocoon. Keith hurries up to him and scrunches his nose in disgust when he realizes that the cocoon is made out of taffy and that Other Matt and Other Pidge are inside it. He lifts up the stone and looks through it, seeing a pink glowing ball of light in the center of it. Keith hands it over to Lance so he can take a peek. He steps away to look around at the rest of the place, making sure the Scottie dogs don’t suddenly attack them.

“I think I can reach in and get it,” Lance whispers.

Keith whirls around to stop him, but before he can, Lance already has his arm inside. His fingers brush up against the eye and as he pulls it out, the magicians wake up. They shriek and begin grabbing at him. Keith panics, not knowing what to do while Lance struggles to get away. He fumbles for his flashlight from his pocket and turns it on, waving it up at the dogs to agitate them.

Once the dogs begin to fly down at him, Keith grabs Lance’s arm and they duck down just as the dogs collide with the magicians, allowing Lance to finally get the eye. The auditorium turns to grey and Other Matt, Other Pidge, and the dogs disintegrate with it.

Breathing heavily, Lance and Keith look at each other and smile. “That was…wow,” Keith comments breathlessly.

Lance chuckles. “We make a pretty good team, don’t we?”

“Yeah, we do,” Keith replies. He feels his cheeks heat up slightly so he looks away before Lance can notice it.

“So, uh, where to next?” Lance asks, standing up. He offers Keith a hand to help him up.

Keith accepts his help and is pulled to his feet. “We should look in the apartment upstairs. There could be an eye hidden there.”

Lance nods. “Oh yeah! Doesn’t the mice dude Coran live there?”

“Yes. Let’s go get that third eye!” Keith exclaims.

He leads Lance out of the magicians’ apartment and up the stairs to where Other Coran lives. On the way up, Keith comes to a halt when he sees the empty clothes of Other Lance dangling from a pole on the balcony. His heart lurches at the sight of it and his eyes well up with tears. “N-no…” Keith covers his mouth and squeezes his eyes shut as the tears begin to spill out. Arms find their way around Keith, and he finds himself crying into Lance’s chest, clutching his jacket. Lance rocks him slowly as Keith’s tears begin to soak the front of his shirt. Other Lance was dead and it was all Keith’s fault. Why didn’t he just come with?  _ Why?! _

“Considering those look just like my clothes, I’m going to assume that was the Other Me,” Lance states as Keith continues to shiver and cry into his chest. “You don’t have to tell me what happened between the two of you, but he clearly was very important to you and I’m sorry he’s gone.” He rubs Keith’s back. “However, he was never real. Just like the rest of this place turned to dust, he eventually would’ve too, and I feel that would’ve been more heartbreaking to witness.” Lance moves so Keith looks at him. “He was created for  _ you _ , Keith. He was made by the monster trying to kill us, but I wasn’t. I’m  _ real _ , Keith, and I’m not going anywhere.”

Keith bites his lip and tightly wraps his arms around Lance’s neck, hugging him once again. “Thank you, Lance.”

Lance takes a deep breath and nods. “You’re welcome, Keith.”

They hug for a few more seconds then release each other. Keith composes himself, wiping the tears off his cheeks then turns to look over the balcony. “HEY HAGGAR! I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU! ONCE I GET THIS THIRD EYE, YOU’RE NEXT!” he shouts.

Keith smiles at Lance then enters the apartment with him. When they enter, Keith’s breath hitches at the emptiness of the room. The cotton candy cannons are gone, the seats are missing, and the brightly colored lights and props are nowhere to be seen. It’s eerily quiet as Keith and Lance walk across the squeaky hardwood floor. Once they approach the empty stage, they jump back in fear when Other Coran emerges from the shadows, reduced to only his ringmaster coat and hat. “Keith! Come for another show?” he wonders.

“No. I’ve come for the eye you’re hiding so I can leave,” Keith replies firmly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Other Coran states. “Why would you want to leave such a perfect world? It was created for you after all.”

“You wouldn’t understand why,” Keith retorts. “You’re just a copy of the real Coran! You’re not real! You’re nothing!” He pulls the green stone out of his pocket and looks through it, spotting the third glowing brown eye in Other Coran’s hat. “His hat!” He jumps forward and swipes it off of Other Coran’s head, but his clothes fall away to reveal the circus mice within.

Keith screams as the mice lunge at him, attempting to get the eye away from him. The head mouse snatches the eye from the ground and makes a break for the door with the other mice. Lance jumps at it, but some other mice prevent him from getting anywhere near the mouse with the eye. As Keith is held down by the mice, he chucks the green stone at the head mouse as a last resort while it exits through the door. It flies through the air and looks like it will hit the mouse, but it misses, falling off the balcony and out of sight.

Keith and Lance scramble to their feet and run towards the balcony as it begins to deteriorate. He screams as the boards give out underneath them. They fall from the top floor and land on the ground with a loud thud. Keith groans in pain and looks around them as the building turns to dust. He looks around in a blind panic for the mouse with the eye and the stone but sees neither.

“No!” he yells. “No…” He clenches his fists, eyes watering again. “W-we lost.”

Lance opens his mouth to reply but stops when the moon’s eclipse finishes, revealing the shadow of a button. He pulls Keith in for another hug. “I-I’m so sorry, Keith.”

The bushes nearby begin to rustle and, soon enough, the cat hops out of it with the mouse in his mouth. He bites it and it turns to sand then spits out the eye beside Keith. “I think you were looking for this?” Shiro wonders.

Keith picks it up, eyes wide with awe. “Shiro…you saved us! Thank you!” he exclaims.

“Yes, I know,” he replies. “Now, shall we take down that monster?”

Keith smiles at Shiro and Lance and scoops Shiro into his arms as they head into the main house together. The paint on the walls thinning and peeling while the ground and furniture rot away. They head into the living room where they find it full of webbing and see Haggar reduced to her true form: a large, spidery figure with spindly fingers and cracked purple skin.

She turns when she senses them in the room, sneering when she sees the cat. “Of course  _ he’d _ be helping you, but that doesn’t matter anymore. Look what I found outside.” She smirks and holds up the green stone. “Finders keepers, losers weepers.” Haggar tosses the stone into the fire without another word.

Without the stone to help, Keith’s left to his own wits to figure out where his parents are before Haggar inevitably kills him and Lance. He glances over the room and spots a set of snowglobes on the mantle. Three of the four seem to have a warmer theme to them while the fourth one is a Christmas one that looks like it’s snowing inside. Keith smirks and looks at Haggar. “I know where my parents are.”

Haggar raises an eyebrow. “Do you now? Where are they then?”

“Behind the small door in the wall,” Keith replies smugly.

Haggar coughs up the key, earning a disgusted groan from Lance, and approaches the small door. When her back is turned, Keith points at the winter snowglobe and whispers, “On my signal, grab that.”

Lance nods in understanding as Haggar opens the door to reveal the colorful tunnel back to the real world but no parents. She cackles maniacally. “Looks like you’re trapped here forever!”

“No, I’m not!” Keith yells, chucking the cat at Haggar. “LANCE!”

Lance hops to action, snatching the snowglobe from the mantle and shoving it in his pocket. Meanwhile, Shiro hisses and scratches out Haggar’s button eyes as he tries to get away from her. Haggar shrieks in pain, and pieces of the wall and floor shaking before falling into nothingness, leaving nothing but a low net of webbing. The cat howls in annoyance and dives through the small door as Keith and Lance grab onto the sides of the webbing to avoid falling into the center.

“NO!” Haggar bellows loudly.

“Keith! Let’s go!” Lance yells, starting to climb towards the open door.

Keith grunts and begins climbing up the net. He feels the web start to vibrate as Haggar skitters up the sides after them. Keith struggles to hold on, losing his grip a few times, but he continues on. Lance reaches the door first and extends his hand down for Keith. “Keith! Grab my hand!”

He reaches up for it, fingers brushing against Lance’s, but Haggar shrieks again, moving the webs so Keith falls down a little. Keith yelps, gripping the side so he doesn’t slip any further. He huffs in frustration and climbs up again, reaching for Lance’s hand.

“Come on!” Lance urges.

Keith finally grasps Lance’s hand and is hoisted through the door. Lance shoves the skeleton key into Keith’s hand.

“Keith! Wait! I’ll die without you!” Haggar screams.

“THEN PERISH!” Keith screams, slamming the door shut before locking it.

A mysterious force pushes him and Lance out of the tunnel and back into Keith’s living room. Lance lands first and Keith on top of him. Both boys groan in pain before looking at each other in shock. Keith opens his mouth to say something, but the front door opens before he can.

Seth and Krolia step through the door, talking happily with each other, but they stop when they see Keith and Lance on the ground. “Keith? What on Earth are you doing?” Krolia wonders. She gasps and points next to them. “Is that my favorite snowglobe?!”

Keith looks to his right and sees the shattered snowglobe that his parents were trapped in. He looks at Lance then scrambles off of him to go hug his parents. “You’re okay! I was so scared!”

Krolia and Seth stiffen when Keith hugs them, but they hug him back after a few seconds. “We were only out for a couple hours,” Seth replies as he and Krolia release Keith. Despite the snow melting off their shoulders, they seem to have zero memory of what happened to them. “And what did you do to your knee?!”

Keith looks down and sees that his jeans are ripped at the knee and it’s bleeding. “Oh, uh-”

“We were just having some fun and Keith scraped his knee against a table,” Lance pipes up from the living room. “Sorry, hi, I’m Lance McClain, Keith’s friend.” He approaches Keith’s parents and holds his hand out for them to shake. “My grandfather owns the Altea Apartments.”

“Ah! I see,” Seth says, shaking Lance’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Lance. My name is Seth and this is my wife Krolia.”

Krolia smiles kindly at Lance and shakes his hand. “It’s lovely to meet you. Oh! Would you and your grandfather be interested in attending our garden party tomorrow? We’re throwing one in celebration of our published catalog.”

Lance exchanges a smile with Keith then looks back at Krolia. “I’m sure he’d love that. Speaking of him, I should be heading home. I will let him know about it.” He turns to Keith. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow then. I had fun today.”

Keith avoids his gaze and nods. “I’ll walk you out.” He steps outside with Lance then shuts the door. “I, uh, want to thank you again. You didn’t have to help me, but you did and that means a lot.”

“Of course,” Lance says. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Goodbye, Keith.” He leans forward and kisses Keith’s cheek softly before hurrying home.

Keith bites his lip and blushes as he steps back inside. He quickly goes upstairs to avoid any questions from his parents then gets ready for bed. As he’s about to get under the covers, Krolia walks in holding a box. “Before you go to bed, I want to give you this.” She gives Keith the box then kisses his forehead. “Goodnight, Keith. I love you.”

He looks at the box with wide eyes then back up at his mom. “Thanks…I love you too.” He waits for her to leave before opening it. Keith smiles happily and pulls out the pair of fingerless gloves he’d wanted.

For once, Keith’s happy to be at home.

 

* * *

 

 

In the middle of the night, Keith stirs awake and spots the cat outside his window. He gets out of bed and opens the window to let Shiro inside. Despite not being able to talk anymore, Shiro looks irritated with Keith - probably angry at being used as a weapon. “Um, I’m sorry for throwing you at Haggar. I just didn’t know what else to do.”

Shiro swishes his tail, glaring at him still, but eventually, his gaze softens and he leaps onto Keith’s bed, snuggling into a ball. Keith rolls his eyes but crawls back into bed with the cat breathing softly next to him. He places the three ghost children’s eyes under his pillow then falls back asleep.

He immediately dreams of the three children again. “ _ Keith, thank you for helping us _ ,” the boy thanks him.

“ _ Yes, thanks to you we are finally free and we remember our names _ ,” the girl in the pink dress adds. “ _ My name is Allura and these are Hunk and Shay. _ ”

“ _ Keith, we should warn you that Haggar still lives and she will never stop looking for you _ ,” Shay warns.

“ _ Be careful, Keith. She’s dangerous _ ,” Hunk states.

The dream fades away and Keith wakes up to the sun shining through his window.  He yawns and stretches his arms out then feels under his pillow, panicking that the eyes are broken, but realizes that the skeleton key is what Haggar really wants so he has to hide it.

Keith quickly gets dressed and decides to dump the key inside the well at the top of the hill. While he trudges up the hill, he can’t shake the feeling that something is following him. As he reaches the well and opens it up, Haggar’s spindly hand suddenly starts attacking him, having apparently escaped through the door. Keith screams as the hand tries to take the key out of his hand and threatens to push Keith down the well.

An air horn sounds and Keith turns to see Lance riding his bike over to help. Lance jumps towards the key, but the hand trips him and he falls into the well, barely managing to grab a root so he doesn’t fall to his death.

“LANCE!” Keith screams. He yells in anger and throws the hand far away from him to give himself time to reach into the well. “Take my hand!”

Lance grasps Keith’s hand and is yanked out just as the hand scurries back over to them. He panics and grabs the nearest rock and smashes the hand with it, breaking it. The two boys breathe heavily and look at each other. “That monster won’t give up!” Lance exclaims.

“I’ll say,” Keith replies. He grabs the key and wraps it in a towel with the rock. Keith then ties it together with string and attaches the key to it. Together, he and Lance drop it down the well and cover it up.

They sit in silence for a moment before Lance breaks it to show Keith a picture. It’s of Lance’s grandfather and his twin sister. The girl is holding a doll that looks just like her. “That’s the last picture of my grandfather and his sister before she went missing.”

Keith takes it from him and recognizes the girl to be Allura. “What are their names?”

“My grandfather is Lotor and his twin is Allura,” Lance shares.

“Allura was one of Haggar’s other victims. I met three of them. Her eye was the pink one we saved,” Keith shares. “Her spirit is free now. I think hearing that will make your grandfather happy.”

Lance nods. “I hope. He said he’d come to the party this afternoon so maybe you can tell him the story. He actually wants to meet you.” He looks at the ground. “I, um, want to apologize again for not believing you before and calling you those names. I should’ve trusted you. Anyway, I should go. My grandfather is probably-”

Before he can finish, Keith pulls Lance in for a kiss to shut him up. Lance tenses up at first but responds, tilting his head slightly to slot their lips together.

Kissing the real Lance is different than kissing Other Lance, probably because he was never real to begin with. This feels authentic and messy all at once, not fake or planned as it felt with Other Lance. This will hold a special place in Keith’s heart. He’ll definitely remember the clean, fresh smell from Lance and the softness of his lips.

Lance pulls away after a couple more seconds and giggles. “That was-”

“-amazing,” Keith finishes smiling. “I’ll see you later, Lance.”

“Bye, Keith,” Lance says before hurrying off again. Keith watches him go with a smile on his face, happy to be living this life, this real life for once. He wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

 

* * *

 

 

During the garden party, Krolia’s and Seth’s coworkers mingle and help them plant flowers while Keith walks around to distribute some cold drinks. When Keith spots Lance escorting Lotor to the party, Keith happily introduces himself and offers Lotor a drink.

“Why thank you,” Lotor says, accepting the drink. “Lance wasn’t lying when he said you were kind. Now, he tells me you have some important information on my sister?”

Keith nods. “Yes, sir, I do. You might want to sit down because it’s a lot, but I promise you’ll like the ending.”

 

_ As the garden party continues on, the cat sits on the signpost in front of the Altean Castle just beyond the house. He seems to smile at the mingling people before stretching out. He gingerly walks along the beam, passing the tip of the post and vanishing from sight. _

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!  
> Tumblr: [keithpoenewt](http://keithpoenewt.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Check out my [Hogwarts AU](https://archiveofourown.org/series/723054), [High School AU](https://archiveofourown.org/series/736509), and [Cop AU](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12734550/chapters/29038824)!


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